Lender not required to stop borrowers from making bad investment, court rules 

A bank has no extra fiduciary duty to a customer if the relationship between them is an ordinary lender-borrower arrangement, a North Carolina Business Court judge has ruled. Judge James L. Gale, in Wells Fargo v. VanDorn, decided that the buyers of mountain real estate did not ask for, nor receive, advice about their purchase from Wells Fargo, and therefore could not later claim the bank had breached a fiduciary duty. In VanDorn, the defendants purchased a lot in a gated-resort community in Watauga County called Laurelmor, using Wells Fargo – the preferred lender for the development – for their financing.